Saturday, October 30, 2010

Candidate Forum Replay Schedules

CAMPAIGN CRAZINESS CONTINUESReports from around the town today indicate that the pre-election craziness continues. We hear via friends and neighbors that hundreds of McEvoy/Leece signs have been stolen.. don't know for sure. We hear that one activist familiar to many has been seen "leapfrogging" Righeimer signs over McEvoy signs. Tuesday cannot come too soon for me!

REPLAY SCHEDULESTo help you understand each of the candidates a little more, below I present the replay schedule for the four (4) candidate forums held this year. These are also available for viewing via streaming video so I've provided those links, too.

KUDOS TO EASTSIDERS AND CMTVThanks very much to my good friends and neighbors from the Eastside Costa Mesa Neighbor's Group and to Dane Bora and Brad Long from Costa Mesa Television for collaborating to present a video view of the Eastside Neighbor's forum. This forum was, in my opinion, the best of the bunch, so I'm glad a wider audience has a chance to see it. As you know, budget constraints prohibited CMTV from recording that event. However, Eastsider Syndy Neyland made a tape of it, which she provided to CMTV, who worked some technological magic and have made it available to us for viewing. Kudos to all.

Giving the unions what they want is what will force the city into bankruptcy. You've got it backwards. Bringing employee salaries and pensions down to a reasonable level will keep the city out of bankruptcy. Costa Mesa can't be spending money it doesn't have. I'm a Democrat, and even I know that.

Wendy walks, talks, and acts like a full blown Democrat. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but neither one of you have a conservative bone in your body. I'm sure it leaves many of your readers scratching their heads. I agree that not all Republicans go around blowing holes in everything that moves (well, maybe Bush, Jr. did) but they are pretty much in lockstep when it comes to being fiscally conservative. You, my man, are not conservative. I might add that your ideals are extremely liberal as well. For instance you seem to be gung ho illegal aliens taking over Costa Mesa. That ideal is the cornerstone of the Democratic party. Case closed.

Lefty Lou, it's my blog... I'll decide when the "case is closed"....The employee bargaining units will not, nor should we expect them to, absorb the brunt of the budget shortfall. It would be right at $19,500 per person for this year. A year ago they, voluntarily, made concessions to help balance last year's budget - they didn't have to do so. This year the firefighters did the same - they came up with more than $600,000 in cost savings when they didn't have to do so.

The city cannot, on it's own, change the type of pension plan we have - it's a CalPers program. Righeimer was right when he said this isn't a Costa Mesa problem - it's a state problem. The problem, though, is that he and his pals in the OC GOP are trying to get Costa Mesa to go it alone with pension reform. I don't know if you actually live in Costa Mesa - I suspect not - but the city would be in a real mess if we did make the kind of changes you seem to demand. We would lose staff and lose the ability to replace them. If you do live in Costa Mesa you're used to having excellent service, beautiful parks, good streets and a safe city. I don't know how much longer those facts will remain now that we're staffed at 1980s levels... time will tell. As far as I'm concerned this case is still open, my friend - the ball's in your court.

Yes, we agree that the city is staffed at 1980s levels, therefore we should be paying that staff 1980s wages. And, contrary to your inference that we cut "somewhere else", there is no place else to cut. On this issue, Righeimer is right. Do the math!

Geoff, the "voluntary offers" carry no water when bankruptcy is on the table. Considering that factor, the city can do anything it damned well pleases. The only other option is to start from scratch. As far as I'm concerned, PERS can take a hike at this point.

P.S. I've lived in Costa Mesa far longer than you have (and yes, I am that old).

Lefty Louis, if you have lived in Costa Mesa "far longer" than me, then I must assume you've been happy with the way things have gone in the past. I assume that you've been supportive of the City Councils we elected that voted for the contracts that have your shorts in a wad today. Have you spoken out in the past against what you apparently feel is such an unacceptable system? How far back? To Whom? If you haven't, why not? Were you, as most of us were, happy to have good, competent public safety staff on the job, keeping us safe? Do you REALLY want to see this city in bankruptcy? If so, then you must REALLY be old and senility your senility is showing. Unkind? Yeah, so what?! It's way too easy to be critical of this situation now but have been the recipient of the excellent service is has bought for us.

Geoff, I like everyone else in Costa Mesa, had no idea we were paying our cops more than the Governor of California (his salary is $174,000 - if he was taking it). The President of the United States made only $200,000 per year, just a few years ago. And for what? I always "assumed" our cops were poorly paid. You never see them on the street, and if you have an emergency, you can't find one anywhere. They used to hang out at the donut shops, nowadays I assume they must be hanging out at home. If you dial 911, they show up at their leisure. Where is the service for the kind of money we are paying them?

Lefty Lou, before you let this issue cause you to stroke out, I suggest you visit other city's web sites where salaries are displayed. You'll find that Costa Mesa is competitive, but not excessive. My personal experience with our emergency personnel is that they've always been there promptly and in force! I imagine you would not speak with such rancor if you were using your real name... anonymity is to bravery what Viagra is to the sex drive - it helps you "get it up" when you can't.

As a police officer in this city, and a long time resident myself, I am sorry you are so unhappy with the service you receive. I can assure you that if you look at our response times to calls for service (they are all computer tracked), you will find they are excellent. This is especially true of in-progress and emergency calls. yes, if you are calling for a "cold call" (such as a report after the fact)you will be put in the queue and have to wait your turn. It's an unfortunate by-product of our reduction in staff.

I can assure you our officers are not "hanging out at home" as you assert. I'm pretty sure they aren't hanging out at the donut shops anymore either. today's officers tend to be more "health conscious". It's all low carb and wheat grass these days.

As for salary sir, I can assure you I don't make anywhere near 174k per year. You yourself claim to have superior math skills. If you would like to meet for coffee some time, I can share with you my W2, and several of my most recently past pay stubs. You bring your calculator and we will do the math together.